Piano roll and drum roll

The piano roll edits a phrase's notes. Pitch runs vertically and time runs horizontally. On a Drum Rack track it becomes a five-row drum roll with the same editing tools.

Double-click an arrangement clip or track header, click a launcher clip, or choose Editor in the dock. The editor scrolls towards the phrase's notes when it opens. Drag the divider above it to give it more height.

Grid and phrase length#

The editor shows 32 sixteenth-note steps, or 16 steps for a launcher clip whose Length is one bar. In 4/4 these correspond to two bars and one bar. Longer launcher lengths create a longer repeat cycle; they do not expand this writing area.

The Snap pill chooses divisions from 1/1 to 1/64 and starts at 1/16. This choice belongs to the note editor and is separate from the arrangement's Grid snap. Bar lines follow the project's time signature, while note timing remains in sixteenth-note steps.

The Zoom slider expands the roll horizontally from 1× to 4×. Right-click empty space and choose Zoom to fit to reset it. The pitched roll shows a four-octave range based on the lowest notes in the phrase. It does not provide a full 128-note keyboard on screen. Click a piano key to audition its pitch.

Add and select notes#

Choose Draw in the top bar and click an empty spot. You can also double-click empty space with Select, or right-click and choose Add note. A new note begins two steps long at 68% velocity.

Click a note to select it and hear its pitch. Shift-click, Ctrl-click or Cmd-click adds or removes it from the selection. Drag a box through empty space to select notes; Shift adds to an existing selection. The editor shows the selection count above the roll.

With Select active, dragging empty space makes a selection box. With Draw active, the same press adds a note. To clear a selection, press Escape or click empty space with Select. Escape closes Studio only after the active selection has been cleared.

Move, resize and split#

Drag a note's middle to change its start and pitch. Selected notes move together. Hold Alt as you begin a drag to make copies and move those copies instead.

Drag either edge to change note length. The left edge changes both the start and length; the right edge changes the end. The pointer changes near an edge so you can distinguish resizing from moving. Lengths stay within the editor's allowed range, from a quarter of a sixteenth-note step to 128 steps.

With notes selected:

• Left and Right move them by the current Snap division. Shift moves them by one bar.
• Up and Down transpose by a semitone. Shift transposes by an octave.
• Split note divides selected notes in half. It requires a note long enough to split.
• The Split tool cuts a clicked note near the pointer. A note's right-click Split action appears when the pointer is inside a valid cut position.

Double-click a note to delete it. Or select notes and use Delete, Backspace or Delete note. Undo reverses the change.

Edit exact values#

Selecting notes reveals Pitch, Length and Velocity controls below the roll.

Note pitch uses MIDI numbers, from 0 to 127. Changing it transposes the selected group by the difference from the first selected note. Note length applies the entered length to the selected notes, measured in sixteenth-note steps. Velocity sets how hard all selected notes are played, from 0 to 100%.

The first selected note supplies the displayed values when several notes differ. A dimmed or muted note remains editable.

Quantise and transform#

Quantise, or Q, snaps the selected notes to the current Snap grid. With no notes selected it quantises the whole phrase. A note that would land beyond the writing area is brought back by one grid division.

Right-click a note for these additional actions:

Humanise varies selected velocities by up to 12 percentage points in either direction. It changes velocity rather than timing. Scale up 10% multiplies velocity by 1.1; values are limited to the permitted range.

Cut, Copy, Paste, Duplicate and Select all in clip are in the note menu. Keyboard paste places the copied group at the current playhead position within the phrase and preserves its pitch relationships. Paste here on empty space uses the pointer position instead. Duplicate puts a copy after the selected notes when there is room within the phrase.

Replace a phrase#

Clear notes empties the phrase. New idea replaces its notes with a fixed twelve-note pattern. It is a starting pattern, not a fresh random melody each time. The pitches depend on whether the instrument is a pitched synth, Mono Bass or Drum Rack. Both actions can be undone.

Arrangement clips on a track share their phrase. Launcher clips hold distinct notes, but opening one loads those notes into the track's editable pattern. Editing therefore changes what the corresponding track pattern plays as well as the selected launcher clip. See arrangement and clip launcher.

Work with drums#

The Drum Rack rows, from top to bottom, are Percussion, Hat, Clap, Snare and Kick. Click their labels to audition. Draw hits and drag them between rows or timing positions. Selection, velocity and the note menus work here too.

The drum row pitches are Kick 36, Snare 38, Hat 42, Clap 39 and Percussion 48. These numbers are useful when sending notes from a MIDI keyboard. Use the visible drum rows for moving hits between pads; general transpose actions operate on MIDI pitches.

For live input, read playing and recording notes. To change each drum's sound rather than its rhythm, use the Drum Rack.